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628 THREE PROPER AND WITTIE
or chiefely on those studies and practizes, that
carrie as they saye, meate m their mouth, haumg
euermore their eye vppon the Title De
pane lucrando, and their hand vpon their half
penny For, I pray now, what faith M Cuddie,
alias you know who, in the tenth Æglogue of
the foresaid famous new Calender ?
Pters, I haue piped erst so long with payne,
That all myne Oien reedes been rent, and wore,
And my poore Muse hath spent htr spared store,
Yet little good hath got, and much lesse gayne
Such pleasaunce makes the Grashopper so poore,
And hgge so layde, when winter doth her strayne
The Dapper Ditties, that I woont deuize,
Tofeede youthes fancie, and the flocking fry,
Dehghten much what 1 the beltjor thy ?
They han the pleasure, 1 a sclender prize
1 beate the bushe, the birdes to them doe flye,
What good thereof to Cuddy can arise ?
But Master Collin Chute is not euery body,
and albeit his olde Companions, Master Cuddy,
and Master Hobbinoll be as little beholding to
their Mtstresse Poetne, as euer you wilt yet
he peraduenture, by the meanes of hir special
fauour, and some personall priuiledge, may
happely hue by dying Pelluanes, and purchase
great landes, and Lordshippes, with the money,
which his Calendar and Dreames haue, and will
aflourde him Extra wcum, I like your Dreames
passingly well and the rather, bicause they
fauour of that singular extraordinary veme
and inuention, whiche I euer fancied moste,
and in a manner admired onelye m Lucian,
Petrarche, Arettne, Pasqutll, and all the most
delicate, and fine conceited Grecians and
Italians (for the Romanes to speake of, are
but verye Ciphars in this kinde ) whose chiefest
endeuour, and drifte was, to haue nothing
vulgare, but in some respecte or other, and
especially in liuely Hyperbohcall Amphfica
tions, rare, quemt, and odde in euery pointe,
and as a man woulde saye, a degree or two at
the leaste, aboue the reache, and compasse of
a common Schollers capacitie In whiche re
specte notwithstanding, as well for the singu
lantie of the manner, as the Diuimtie of the
matter, I hearde once a Diuine, preferre Saint
Johns Reuelahon before al the veriest Mœta
physicall Visions,and lollyest conceited Dreames
or Extasies, that euer were deuised by one or
other, howe admirable, or superexcellent soeuer
they seemed otherwise to the worlde And
truely I am so confirmed m this opinion, that
when I bethmke me of the verie notablest, and
I Vision, that euer I read, or hearde, me seemeth
the proportion is so vnequall, that there hardly
appeareth anye semblaunce of Comparison
no more in a manner (specially for Poets) than
doth betweene the incomprehensible Wise
dome of God, and the sensible Wit of Man
But what needeth this digression betweene you
and me ? I dare saye you wyll holde your
selfe reasonably wel satisfied, if youre Dreames
be but as well esteemed of in Englande, as
Petrarches Visions be in Italy whiche I assure
you, is the very worst I wish you But, see,
how I haue the Arte Manor aue at commaunde
ment In good faith I had once againe nigh
forgotten your Faerie Queene howbeit by
good chaunce, I haue nowe sent hir home at the
laste, neither in better nor worse case, than
I founde hir And must you of necessitie haue
my Iudgement of hir in deede ? To be plame,
I am voyde of al iudgement, if your Nine
Comœtes, whervnto in imitation of Herodotus,
you giue the names of the Nine Muses, (and
in one mans fansie not vnworthily) come not
neerer Artostoes Comcedtes, eyther for the
finenesse of plausible Elocution, or the rare
nesse of Poetical Inuention, than that Eluish
Queene doth to his Orlando Furioso, which not
withstanding, you wil needes seeme to emulate,
and hope to ouergo, as you flatly professed
your self in one of your last Letters Besides
that you know, it hath bene the vsual practise
of the most exquisite and odde wittes in all
nations, and specially in Italic, rather to shewe,
and aduaunce themselues that way, than any
other as namely, those three notorious
dyscoursing heads, Btbiena, Machauel, and
Arettne did, (to let Bembo and Anosto passe)
with the great admiration, and wonderment of
the whole countrey being in deede reputed
matchable in all points, both for conceyt oi
Witte, and eloquent decyphering of matters,
either with Aristophanes and Menander in
Greek, or with Plautus and Terence in Latin,
or with any other, in any other tong But I
wil not stand greatly with you in your owne
matters If so be the Faerye Queene be fairer
m your eie than the Nine Muses, and Hob
goblin runne away with the Garland from
Apollo Marke what I saye, and yet I will not
say that I thought, but there an End for this
once, and fare you well, till God or some good
Aungell putte you in a better minde
And yet, bicause you charge me somewhat
suspitiouslye with an olde promise, to dehuer
you of that lealousie, I am so farre from hyding
moste wonderful Propheticall, or Poetical I mine owne matters from you, that loe, I muste